Uasin Gishu governor on the spot after failing to disclose his clearance status

-President Uhuru Kenyatta last week said that anyone vying for an elective post under the Jubilee party ticket must be cleared before the primaries

- Uhuru issued firm instructions that aspirants who did not pass the test of leadership and integrity as outlined in Chapter Six of the Constitution should not be allowed to contest in Jubilee primaries.

- Sources from the party say the President is determined to ensure that those running on the party ticket did not carry 'excess baggage'.

The party primaries prior to the general elections are due in about a month’s time.

Party hopping is ongoing even as aspirants seek to settle on a vehicle that will propel them to their desired seat of power for either gubernatorial, senatorial, MP, Women representative or MCA positions.

The hurdles every candidate must be cleared for include from the Kenya Revenue Authority, Higher Education Loans Board, the Credit Reference Bureau, Commission for Higher Education, and the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission.

Last week, fake documents did rounds on social media claiming that a billionaire vying on a Jubilee ticket was not cleared for the party primaries owing to his academic qualifications. The party has since dismissed the letter as counterfeit, and that it did not originate from their offices.

In a new twist however, supporters of the Uasin Gishu county incumbent governor, Jackson Mandago, are now demanding that he comes out and shows his clearance papers both from the Jubilee party and the different government bodies.

Governor Mandago has been on the spot over ongoing graft at the county since 2013, as shown in the Auditor General’s report for the county since he took office five years ago.

All other candidates vying for the Uasin Gishu county gubernatorial seat have been cleared and even disclosed their clearance papers, but Mandago has not. This has led to an online onslaught against him by his supporters demanding that he also shows them or they shift camp.

Prior to the Devolution Conference that was held in Naivasha before last weekend, Mandago was in the news yet again owing to a supplementary budget requested by his administration amounting to Ksh 500 million. The governor says the money is meant for road construction, but his deputy Daniel Chemno insists it is meant for completion of existing projects.

Uasin Gishu county has been on the spot over corruption since 2013 when Governor Mandago took office (image: Daily Nation)

Uasin Gishu county was also named among the defaulters according to the Council of Governors, for not having paid the required Ksh 2 million for the conference, thus all the county members and officials, except the governor, were locked out from attending the event.

Aspirants who are eyeing various positions on a Jubilee Party ticket but with pending court cases over alleged corruption, incitement to violence, tax evasion, fraud, falsification of academic papers, misuse of firearms, assault, rape, forgery and hate speech could be locked out of the party nominations.

The directive means that politicians with corruption cases will have their nomination applications rejected.